Ukraine’s Two Main Drone Issues

4 min read

Ukraine could also be a powerhouse of drone manufacturing and innovation, however Russia is complicating Kyiv’s largely efficient efforts to dominate the skies above the war-torn nation.

Ukrainian drone operators face two major challenges on the battlefield, greater than two years into full-scale conflict, mentioned Taras Chmut, the director of Ukraine’s Come Again Alive Basis, which helps Kyiv’s army.

Ukrainian drone crews can not launch tens of drones from the identical sliver of the entrance line concurrently, Chmut instructed Newsweek. Slightly, Ukraine must get these drones within the air one after the other — “it is a drawback,” he mentioned.

“The second drawback is that the enemy can jam typical frequencies with typical digital warfare tools designed for this,” Chmut added. “That is why expert crews seek for and alter frequencies to go well with the particular space of the entrance line the place they function.”

Ukraine Drones
A member of Ukraine’s army learns to fly a drone with a bomb connected to it in Ukraine’s Lviv area on Could 12, 2023. Ukraine could also be a powerhouse of drone manufacturing and innovation however…


Paula Bronstein/Getty Photographs

“This permits them to work with extra drones concurrently,” he added.

Wherever there’s a hole in digital warfare, extra drones can take to the skies at anyone time, mentioned Samuel Bendett, of the U.S.-based suppose tank the Middle for Naval Analyses (CNA).

“It is all about flying them at frequencies that aren’t jammed by EW tools,” Bendett instructed Newsweek.

Digital warfare, or EW, is a part of how Russia and Ukraine are working to fight the opposite’s intensive drone fleets, not least the favored and ubiquitous first-person-view (FPV) drones. EW methods can intrude with the concentrating on of drones, jamming the alerts from satellites directing the uncrewed autos to their vacation spot. Drone operators are then tasked with discovering workaround for counter-drone know-how.

Earlier this week, a Russian army blogger mentioned Ukrainian FPV drone operators had been “already altering frequencies and ordering industrial manufacturing with this modified parameter from overseas factories.”

“Our digital warfare just isn’t at all times efficient towards them,” the blogger mentioned in a publish to the Telegram messaging app.

Drones’ resistance to EW will depend on the kind of tools utilized by an enemy power, together with the frequencies they’re utilizing, mentioned Chmut.

EW efforts might be counteracted by upping the variety of frequencies used, he mentioned.

One other Russian army blogger mentioned on Tuesday that Moscow’s FPV drones had been being “suppressed by our personal digital warfare” across the captured jap metropolis of Avdiivka, with solely round 30 % of the uncrewed autos reaching the world of their targets.

Ukrainian sources have additionally reported that Russia’s army has moved its personal FPV drones to frequencies completely different from these usually utilized by Ukraine’s EW methods, specifically the transportable variations, Bendett beforehand instructed Newsweek.

Each side seem to consider the opposite is producing extra FPV drones, however it is rather troublesome to discern true numbers, he added.

Russia has elevated its drone manufacturing, pouring assets into increasing its arsenal of low-cost FPV drones. Russia’s FPV growth has in all probability “grown exponentially,” Bendett mentioned in mid-December, and Moscow is now possible getting a stream of tens of 1000’s of FPV drones every month.

Ukraine has run a number of fundraisers for drones, significantly FPV uncrewed autos. Operation Unity—an preliminary push from the Come Again Alive Basis, the state-backed United24 platform and Ukrainian on-line financial institution, Monobank—raised funds to produce 1000’s of drones to items throughout Ukraine’s armed forces, particular operations forces, nationwide police and safety service. A subsequent fundraiser raised the money to purchase one other 5,000 armed FPV drones.